Updates on my writing.
March ended up going by a lot faster than I anticipated!
I ended up writing 10,970 words in March: the entirety of “Save and Seduce II” (5,616), and then the second half of “Good Judgement” (5,354 of 10,201 words). That’s a roughly 1,000 words less than my February productivity, but it’s still an amount I’m really, really proud of.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!
I haven’t been giving many updates for the best reason possible: I’ve been too busy writing! Here in the next day or two, I’ll be posting a new story, a sequel to @saltyteafutas “Save and Seduce.”
I haven’t written one of these updates for over two weeks, and that’s because I’ve been extremely busy writing actual stories!
In all of 2017, I wrote about 5,400 words.
In January, I wrote just under 3,000 words: my shrine maiden-to-succubus story (2,200), and half of the harpy corruption commission (800).
In February, I finished the harpy corruption commission (800), wrote the 3,600 word Korra/DBZ crossover, and have written another 7,600 words in two stories that have yet to be finished or published.
That means:
I was flabbergasted when I did the math. I’ve been trying to consistently get a few hundred words in a day, then crank it up to ~1,000 words if I have the time and energy. I just didn’t expect it to pay off so well. This means that in February, I’ve been averaging ~433 words a day, which is almost 50% more than the 300 words/day I set for myself back in January.
The long and short is that there’s a lot more Devi writing in the pipeline, I just need to start actually finishing these stories!
It has been a really productive writing week!
First, @jilldoesprompts and I have also continued to work on our commissions—in fact, our first collaboration was published this week! That’s actually my first new story in the new year, and there will be more very soon!
I don’t like to blame Real Life Things for my lack of productivity here, but I will say the last two weeks of January were pretty intense at my non-lewdite job. I’m glad they’re over and that I’m back on my writing tracks.
I’ve been able to set aside time for a few intense writing sessions this week: about 400 words of really good material during several two- or three-hour coffee shop visits. That’s pretty, pretty slow compared to many of the professional and semi-professional authors I follow—@sammynona wrote 46,000 words in the month of January!—but it’s a good start for me.
The usual recommendation I’ve heard is to “just write” and get as many words out as you can, not stopping to edit until the first draft is complete. But I’ve never been able to get that process to work for me. I’ve always envisioned my writing as bricklaying, or forging a chain—each part builds on what came before and sets up what will come after. Cadence and flow are important to me, and that means always having a good idea of where the story is and where it is going. It’s not as though I demand each sentence be perfect, but I don’t want to build too much of my stories on unfirm foundations.
Furthermore: as much as I want to increase my writing output, I don’t want to use words like “efficiency” and “productivity” when it comes to my writing—the fell power of capitalism’s invisible hand is not welcome in these here parts. I might need to simply accept that, at this point in my writing hobby/career, I write about 1,000 good words a week, that that number is going to go up slowly, and that there’s no Youtube video shortcut that will show me how to quintuple my productivity overnight.
On the other hand, one of my favorite adages is “lose your first one hundred games of go quickly”—the idea being that, as a novice, you really don’t have the skill or knowledge to have deep, constructive thoughts on a matter. Maybe I’m fooling myself into thinking that my “slow and steady” approach is beneficial!
These writing sessions let me finish up my first commission, a story of a hapless corvid birdgirl transforming into a demonic futa harpy, commissioned by corruptivespirit! The story has been sent off to @jilldoesprompts for illustration, and it’ll be posted publicly later in the week!
Next up on the docket: a story for @sapphomet, about a meek waitress becoming a very, very bad demoness. I also want to take a little time for myself and knock out a special Valentine’s story, inspired by @saltyteafutas‘ frequent holiday prompts.
Last but not least, I received this email in my spam box this morning:
If, in the next few days, I and other lewd blogs fall off of your dashboard, you’ll know why. Please turn your Safe Mode back off!
Lewdites, we’ve done it:
The DARK SABATS will testify that this TERRIBLE NUMBER OF AWESOME POWER was actually achieved on Monday, January 22nd. However, it’s been a busy week here in the second circle of Hell, and I’ve only just been able to announce it.
Some other goings on this week:
The college students have come back to town after their long winter break, and my usual writing haunt has been taken over by undergraduates who don’t understand that I really, really need the corner table to write some goddamn smut.
It’s been less than a week, but a lot has happened since my last Infernal Dispatch!
First and most significantly, my bestest internet friend @jilldoesprompts had her tablet and laptop stolen. That gear is essential for her art, so I offered to write commissioned stories to help her raise money to replace what was stolen! And you know what? We did it! In the past few days, several of you reached deep into your hearts and donated over $300. Jill and I are absolutely floored by the outpouring of support.
Since my inaugural Infernal Dispatch a week ago, I have found time to write almost every day. The only exception was yesterday, when I took a day off to go see The Shape of Water and play more Fire Emblem Warriors.*
(The Shape of Water: it was really good! Guillermo del Toro consistently tells the types of stories that I want to tell, too: the monstrous turned familiar, the familiar turned monstrous, and goodness triumphant over human evil. Also, it had a sexy monster lizardman in it! What isn’t to like???)
Today, I finished the first draft of my succubus transformation tribute to mokushi-c3. At 2,158 words, it’s a little under half (40%) of what I wrote in all of 2017. Way to go, Devi!
It also means I’m averaging about 300 words a day. That isn’t much, especially considering how much time I’ve spent “writing” in the past week (read: browsing the internet, posting on twitter, what have you). I want to write more each day, but the answer won’t be finding more time; it’ll be using the time I am writing more efficiently.
Again, though, I’m not going to focus on any negative. I have been able to consistently write, a little bit every day, and that’s the real victory. I’m also not going to beat myself up for spending time chatting with internet friends like @walkingawoken. That’s part of the fun and part of the motivation! I’m putting in the time and effort, laying bricks toward achieving a bigger goal. I couldn’t be prouder of myself.
Next on the docket is actually editing my succubus tribute. I’ve never been able to follow the conventional wisdom of “just write, then edit later.” I spend a lot of time tweaking sentences, trying to nail the perfect transition to the next paragraph, each word building on what came before. On the one hand, that means my first drafts aren’t completely unedited messes. On the other hand, it means that my first drafts are completely unedited messes, but I’ve spent so long, so close to the text that I can’t see how bad it is. I’m probably going to set it aside for a little bit and edit it when a day or two’s reprieve gives me better perspective. (I say probably; there’s a good chance I’ll leave Starbucks, go home, and edit it there.)
Second: remember how I mentioned writing a shared universe for my monster girl stories? Well, the next story I’ve brainstormed will be the first one set in that universe. It won’t have explicit transformation or corruption scenes, but I think my readers will find much in the story they do like. I’ve initially entitled it The Assassination of Innocence, and it involves a demoness attempting to (well what else?) assassinate a high priestess and getting far, far more than she bargained for. It’ll be something new for me, with some world building and some fight scenes. We’ll see how it goes!
* Spoiler alert: I want to know more about the Fire Emblem universes so I can write some l e w d fanfic! whoops!
One of my favorite transformation authors, @mistyfdfa, has spent the past year posting weekly status updates about their writing. Even if I’m not up-to-date on her stories, I always try to read their “conference calls”; I find them very inspiring and hopeful.
So to send out 2017 in style and begin 2018 on the right foot, I’ve decided to emulate this practice and write up an annual review!